16 June 2014

Run through a
list of some of the less illustrious names who’ve appeared between the
sticks for Orient in our recent past and it’s easy to consider ourselves
very lucky to have had a goalkeeper of the calibre of Jamie Jones for
six seasons.

Bought as a 19-year-old in summer 2008 by Martin
Ling in a momentary interlude in the manager’s obsessive but unfruitful
search for a big striker, Jones established himself as number one in his second
season, under new gaffer Geraint Williams.

In the 2010/11 season he was immense - pulling off countless gravity-defying saves to
help Orient rise up the league and almost make the play-offs.

Shot-stopping
- that was his stock-in-trade. He narrowed angles; he leapt; he clawed;
he almost never spilled those low, skidding shots that regularly
terrorise lower league goalkeepers.

Jones wasn’t flawless, of
course - no goalkeepers are, and in League One fans have to accept some
sort of fallibility in their number ones. The Scouser’s weak spot was
coming off his line and commanding his area, though to be fair in his
defining 2010/11 season that wasn’t particularly pronounced.

At
the conclusion of that campaign Jones wasted no time in changing his
Twitter bio to read: “League One goalkeeper - for now” - not exactly a
chest-beating declaration of loyalty to the club that paid his wages
but, hey, he was young, he was ambitious, he was a bit of a twat.

And
besides, there were no knocks on the door from the Championship or the
Premier League so Jones was a League One goalkeeper for a little bit
longer.

And then he got crocked: a shoulder injury
sustained in the summer of 2011 that wiped out all but the last five
games of the coming season. Repeated recurrences and other injuries
meant that Jones also missed large chunks of 2012/13 and 2013/14.

When
he did play, the shot-stopping was still there, but the minor crack in
his ability to command his area became a deep ravine. He reverted to the
safety-first technique of punching, mostly unsuccessfully, wafting his
right fist at high balls like an 11-year-old girl trying to land one on
her irritating older brother.

Still, it was easy for fans to
forgive the moments of aerial vulnerability when Jones would regularly
keep Orient in games with his acrobatic saves. Such was his prowess when we played Swindon away this season that a deranged fan figured the only way to beat him was to come on the pitch and punch him.

Bosnia's number one: Eldin Jakupovic

But then our
heads were turned in January 2014 when Bosnian Eldin Jakupovic glided
into Brisbane Road like the dark, brooding love interest in a gothic
romance novel.

Whether he was tearing off his line, rising
majestically above the melee to claim the ball, or celebrating madly in
front of opposition supporters after conceding a goal that was
subsequently disallowed, Eldin was the goalkeeper that made Orient fans
go gooey-eyed.

Unfortunately for Jones, after that fans could
never look at him in the same way again; we averted our eyes,
embarrassed yet still secretly exhilarated by our wild, whirlwind affair
with Bosnia’s number one.

On his return to the team, Jones
never gave less than 100 per cent, but it’s a sad truth that of the four
goals Orient conceded in the play-offs, the goalkeeper was definitely
at fault for two (Peterborough away and Rotherham’s first); probably at
fault for another (Peterborough at home); and will be annoyed for being
beaten from 35 yards by Alex Revell at Wembley.

So while Jones
is ambitious to play in the Championship - and touted himself to Preston
to help him achieve that - it’s an unfortunate irony that were it not
for his mistakes, Orient might already be there.

Still, there’s
no need for Os fans to bear him any malice – like I said, Jones never
gave less than 100 per cent and, arguably, is the best (permanent)
keeper we’ve had at Brisbane Road in the last 30 years or so.

That
said, when Orient play Preston next season, I hope that Russell Slade
instructs his players to repeatedly pump high balls towards the
opposition’s six-yard box. Where's Sam Parkin when you need him?

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A disclaimer

The opinions on this Leyton Orient blog are generally based on no actual research. When I write stuff I frequently distort the truth, exaggerate and contradict myself, mostly in an effort to construct tenuous metaphors or to make cheap gags about the players. Sorry about all that.